Far-right groups that once had little to do with one another are joining forces to spread their racist views. Racial violence is increasing. Young people are joining up. What's behind the rise of the far right, and what's being done to counter it?

John Larkin and his three companions were walking down a bike path when it happened. Ten young adults confronted Larkin, who is partly of Asian descent, called him “gook,” spat on him, knocked him to the ground and kicked him with their steel-toed boots, breaking his nose. When one of Larkin's friends intervened, he, too, was beaten, his cheekbone crushed. The two young women in the group with Larkin tried to flee, but they were grabbed and beaten by female members of the gang.

Larkin and his friends were attacked by violent “skinheads,” members of a youth subculture whose racism, religious bigotry and violence are reminiscent of Nazi Germany a half-century ago. Larkin's confrontation with skinheads took place earlier this year in Montgomery County, Md., an affluent suburb of Washington, D.C.But it was hardly an isolated incident. In cities across the country, gangs of young skinheads, sporting such names as BASH (Baltimore Area Skin Heads), Reich Skins and Romantic Violence, have attacked blacks, Asians, Hispanics, homosexuals and other minorities. Their numbers appear to he growing. The Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith estimates there were about 2,000 skinheads in 21 states last October, up from between 1,000 and 1,500 just eight months earlier.